The present invention relates to image segmentation of major white matter bundles in the human brain using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) datasets.
Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) has become an important diagnostic imaging technique in medical applications and can be used in neuron navigation and surgery. The Diffusion Tensor measured in nerve fibers may be highly anisotropic and provide a way to identify fiber tracts. Region based segmentation methods using DTI may not work for the whole tract. DTI methods applying evolving surfaces (level set methods) can improve the segmentation of white matter fiber tract. Current level set methods can be relatively slow and not completely accurate in segmenting white matter fiber tracts.
Accordingly, new and improved geometric flow based methods for segmentation of white matter fiber tracts in DT-MRI are required.